Thursday, June 20, 2013

While there are some people out there who seem to be frustrated that the old Fire Station 16 in Downtown Salisbury has been sitting vacant for the past 5 years, there are others even more frustrated that Mayor Jim Ireton and Council President Jake Day are proposing to pretty much give away taxpayer owned assets.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed some interesting police reports in the U.K. According to the record, police in the county of Nottinghamshire have received 97 calls about aliens, monsters, werewolves, zombies, and witches in the past three years. Police actually responded to 13 of the 49 calls they received last year, but none of the sightings were confirmed. Some say Nottinghamshire is one spooky place, and others highlight the fact that alcohol was involved in many of the other-worldly sightings.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a lot of heat over his attempt to ban large, sugary sodas. But, Bloomberg and the mayors of 15 other U.S. cities are trying another approach to limit these drinks in an effort to fight obesity. The mayors are reviving an attempt to prohibit the purchase of soda and sugary drinks with food stamps. Mayor Bloomberg released a statement about the proposal, saying, “Why should we continue supporting unhealthy purchases in the false name of nutrition assistance?” Mayor Bloomberg and then-governor David Paterson attempted such a ban back in 2010, but the USDA denied their request to add sugary drinks to the list of items that cannot be purchased with food stamps. In this latest effort, Mayor Bloomberg also expressed concerns to the USDA about proposed cuts to food stamp funding, and suggested the agency provides recipients with more incentives to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. This effort may not get Mayor Bloomberg any more support than his proposed soda ban, but he is not giving up on his fight to prevent obesity.

Yesterday, Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings released the full transcript of a five-hour hearing on the IRS's alleged targeting of Tea Party Groups. And – it proves everything Congressman Cummings has been saying all along – the White House was not involved in deciding which groups were required to provide additional information to the IRS before getting tax-exempt status. Congressman Cummings released the 200-page document after charging that House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa has misrepresented the Committee's findings by saying they found evidence of “Washington involvement.” According to the transcript, the only Washington-based IRS officials who reviewed the applications were part of a technical specialty group that was handling the case because it was “high-profile”, and working to ensure the all similar applications were processed in a uniform manner. Chairman Issa released a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed that Ranking Member Cummings has decided to broadly disseminate” the transcript, and says it will “serve as a roadmap for IRS officials to navigate investigative interviews with Congress.” However, his concern did not prevent his office from releasing portions of the transcript that deceptively imply White House involvement. Congressman Darrell Issa has purposely blurred the line between a tech-support group located in Washington, D.C. and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Congressman Elijah Cummings has made a bold attempt to shed light on the situation, but it's doubtful that anything – even the blatant truth – will stop Darrell Issa from pursuing this political witch hunt.

OCEAN CITY -- Worcester County Health Department officials are urging residents and visitors to Ocean City to use caution around wild animals this week after a rabid raccoon was discovered.

The health department was initially notified on Tuesday about an aggressive raccoon near Northside Park that had already attacked one individual. It was later learned that two more individuals were charged by what authorities believe is the same raccoon.

The raccoon first came at a group of landscapers working around Northside Park on Tuesday and made contact with one of the crewmembers. Although the individual wasn’t bitten, nor did he have an open wound, the worker was treated with shots for rabies because he had come in contact with the rabid wild animal.

Strangely enough, the same landscaping crew was working in a different area in north Ocean City about five blocks away the next day when presumably the same rabid raccoon attacked them again. The raccoon reportedly swam across a canal and came out of the water soaking wet and aggressively approached the landscaping crew, which ultimately hit the animal with a shovel and killed it. The dead raccoon later tested positive for rabies.More

The House voted on Wednesday to cut food stamps by $2 billion a year as part of a wide-ranging farm bill.

The chamber rejected 234-188 a Democratic amendment to the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm legislation that would have maintained current spending on food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The overall bill cuts the $80 billion-a-year program by about 3 percent and makes it harder for some people to qualify.

The food stamp cuts have complicated passage of the bill and its farm-state supporters were working to secure votes Wednesday. Many conservatives have said the food stamp cuts do not go far enough since the program has doubled in cost in the last five years and now feeds 1 in 7 Americans. Liberals have argued against any reductions, contending the House plan could take as many as 2 million needy recipients off the rolls. The White House has threatened a veto over the food stamp cuts.More

If Bernanke really shakes the tree, half the world may fall out ... We no longer have a free market. The world's financial asset prices have become a plaything of central banks and the sovereign wealth funds of a few emerging powers. Julian Callow from Barclays says they are buying $1.8 trillion worth of AAA or safe-haven bonds each year from an available pool of $2 trillion. Nothing like this has been seen before in modern times, if ever. – UK Telegraph

Dominant Social Theme: Oh, this is overwrought. Even conspiratorial.

Free-Market Analysis: We can hardly keep track of how many times the alternative 'Net media, including ourselves, have been proven correct in the past few months.

The war in Afghanistan is an admitted failure; the world is swimming in shale oil; central banking's credibility shattered ... and now one of the most mainstream and powerful newspapers in Britain has published an article admitting that the West's economy is far from free.

What a difference 5 years make: Obama braves blistering Berlin heat to make speech before invite-only crowd of 6,000 (that's 194,000 FEWER than last time he was in Germany)

President Obama appeared before 6,000 invite-only guests in Berlin on Wednesday as he spoke at the historic Brandenburg Gate - a remarkable difference from the rock-star welcome he received five years ago in front of 200,000 cheering supporters.

Speaking in Ireland this week, President Obama stated that Catholic schools were divisive: “If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation.” On Thursday, the American Catholics for Religious Freedom fired back on President Obama’s words to 2,000 young people at the G8 Summit, stating, “President Obama’s anti-faith, secular agenda was shamefully on full display yesterday when he told the young people of Northern Ireland that Catholic education and other faith-based schools were divisive and an obstacle to peace. All Americans of faith should be outraged by these comments which clearly telegraph the President’s belief system and are in fact at their core even anti-American.”American Catholics for Religious Freedom points out that the media has completely ignored the story, and adds, “Secular progressives like President Obama ignore the truth that faith-based education is a component of the Religious Freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. He can’t bear the thought that Catholic and parochial schools not only teach important values but consistently produce better educational results at lower cost than America’s failing public schools. The President’s troubling values are showing here in a way that demonstrate just how dangerous this Administration is and how committed it is to eroding the rights of all people of faith.”

It's already been firmly established that if a person, group or ideology disagrees with Barack Obama, he becomes fixated on them and then, any opportunity he gets, he makes provocative comments that could be interpreted as a warning shot. The message? Barack Obama doesn't forget ideological unfaithfulness, and if he can, he'll shut you up by shutting you down.The president has imposed his bad attitude on, to name but a few: Conservatives, specifically of the tea party brand, right-leaning talk radio, Fox News, and the group the left views as the seat of pro-life advocacy, the Catholic Church.

Already reeling from a pair of scandals, the Internal Revenue Service is drawing new criticism over plans to hand out millions of dollars in employee bonuses.

The Obama administration has ordered agencies to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts, but the IRS says it’s merely following legal obligations under a union contract.

The agency is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses, said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the IRS.

Grassley said his office has learned that the IRS was to execute an agreement with the employees’ union Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.More

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with the employees’ union on Wednesday to pay the bonuses. Grassley says the bonuses should be canceled under an April directive from the White House budget office.

“During a 10-day journey through rebel-held territory in Syria, Reuters journalists found that radical Islamist units are sidelining more moderate groups that do not share the Islamists’ goal of establishing a supreme religious leadership in the country,” the outlet reports.

The lengthy article details how the fractured rebel landscape has led to the Islamists gaining power. It also notes that the citizens of the country don’t seem to mind, as the fighters “have developed a reputation for being principled” and help maintain order — even via Shariah law courts.

Ocean City, Md. – Worcester County Health Department confirmed late yesterday afternoon that a raccoon that attacked a person in north Ocean City tested positive for rabies.

The health department was initially notified by a citizen on Tuesday morning about an aggressive raccoon near Northside Park that attacked one person. It was later learned that two more people were charged by what authorities believe is the same raccoon.

Rabies is an ongoing issue in Worcester County and affects local wildlife. The animals most frequently confirmed with rabies in the county are raccoons, followed by foxes, skunks, groundhogs and cats.

Any person, pet or other animal that may have had contact with this or other rabies suspect wildlife may be at risk of a rabies exposure.

To report any contact with or exposure to this raccoon, call the Worcester County Health Department at 410-632-1100 or 410-352-3234. Any potential exposures should be reported immediately so that a risk assessment can be done.

If a pet has had contact with a wild or suspect animal, contact your veterinarian and the health department. Wounds found on an outdoor pet from an unwitnessed encounter should be treated as a possible rabies exposure. Appropriate management for your pet will be determined and currently vaccinated animals should be reboostered after exposure.

Reports of sick acting, aggressive wildlife or strays should be reported immediately so law enforcement can assess the situation and contain the suspect animal and minimize other exposure to pets or persons. Suspect rabid animals should then be made available for testing by the health department, where warranted.

According to a newly released Rasmussen poll, the overwhelming majority of Americans now believe that the IRS targeting scandal wasn’t the work of “rogue agents in Ohio,” but was directed from Washington DC.

Despite a lag in national mainstream media coverage, the story continues to unfold, with a growing audience. 82% now say they are following the story and 44% say they’re following it very closely.

The following three minutes of absolute perfection uttered by CNBC's Rick Santelli is dangerous for anyone living in Kyle Bass' "intellectually dishonest" alter-world of denial and "unicorns and rainbows" as the Chicagoan goes off on the ignorance of everyone in these so-called markets. When every talking head is bullish and the world is going so great that we should all "buy stocks," Santelli demands we ask Bernanke - "what are you scared of," that keeps you pumping this much money into the system for this long? Simply put, Santelli's epic rant is the filter that every investor (or member of the public) should be viewing financial media and the Fed today (or in fact every day).

A trash truck driver caused the explosive derailment of a CSX freight train near Baltimore last month by failing to stop at a railroad crossing, the company contends in a federal lawsuit.

The complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleges negligence by John J. Alban Jr. and his company, Alban Waste LLC. The Associated Press was unable to reach either of them by telephone Thursday.

Suitland lawyer John F.X. Costello, named in a court document as the defense attorney, said he hasn't been hired to represent either defendant. He declined to comment on the case.More

When I talk to many teenagers and grade schoolers, they seem to have no problem comprehending the fact that if you just create a lot of money, it’ll be like Monopoly money and it won’t have value. Governments do that for all kinds of reasons, especially to enhance political power to fight wars we shouldn’t be fighting or to pass welfare programs that aren’t deserved.

When you print that money, the value of that dollar has to go down, and then one of the consequences of inflating the money will be higher prices. But there are a lot of other problems, too, with inflating. It causes a business cycle, it causes financial bubbles and it causes a lot of economic distortions and unemployment. But in a nutshell, inflation is very simple. When governments create new money out of thin air, you have inflation.

Inflation is immoral because it’s theft. Think about it this way: If you or I had a printing press and we could print the money just like the government does, we would be arrested and put in jail for a long, long time because we’d have stolen value — we’re pretending these pieces of paper are worth something. The Founders understood this very clearly, and that’s why they said in the Constitution that you can’t emit mills of credit, which is paper money, because they knew what runaway inflation is like.

Los Angeles' school system, the second largest in the United States, is ordering iPads for all its students, handing Apple a major success in its quest to make the tablet computer a replacement for textbooks.

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved the purchase of $30 million worth of iPads as the first part of a multi-year commitment. It found that the iPad was the least expensive option that met its specifications. More

The U.S. Naval Academy on Wednesday officially brought charges against three football players accused of sexually assaulting a female midshipman.The students have been charged with making a false official statement as well as rape, sexual assault or other sexual misconduct, said Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. John Schofield.

Two lawmakers want to increase turnout by extending early voting through the Sunday before Election Day, a move election officials say would wipe out safeguards that keep people from voting twice.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, and Del. Jon Cardin, D-Baltimore County, wrote a letter to state elections administrator Linda Lamone June 6 asking for the change. Cardin serves as the Ways and Means subcommittee chairman for election law and is a probable candidate for attorney General in 2014. The delegates argued an extra weekend could increase voter turnout.

“Maryland’s early voting period remains one of the most limited in the nation,” Hixson and Cardin wrote. “The Brennan Center for Justice recommends allowing early voting on the weekend before Election Day, because early voting turnout increases as public excitement and media coverage of the election build as Election Day approaches.”More

However, the agency is still developing policies for the unmanned aircraft. FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate panel that the chief issues are privacy and safely operating drones in densely populated areas. Drones have been used to look at stationary subjects to date and they were used at night during a hostage standoff earlier this year in Alabama, Mueller said. Each deployment requires permission from the FAA.

The union representing Internal Revenue Service employees said the agency has to award bonuses to top performers. The National Treasury Employees Union says it would be illegal for the IRS to cancel the bonuses and it would violate their collective bargaining agreement. The contract authorizes merit-based awards of up to $3,500 a year. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has criticized the IRS for its plan to award $70 million in employee bonuses. Grassley said the agency is ignoring a guidance by the White House to cancel bonuses due to budget constraints. The IRS is in the process of negotiating with the union over the matter.

Fire Division looks into speedy trips clocked by GPS

Seven Columbus fire supervisors raced to emergencies at more than 100 mph this year, an internal investigation has determined.

That didn’t violate the Fire Division’s policy, and they likely won’t be disciplined. But the incidents have sparked a debate among city officials about how fast is too fast when responding to emergencies.

Fire administrators launched the investigation despite strong objections from fire union officials. The city’s new GPS tracking system had flagged SUVs driven by firefighters serving in the role of battalion chief who drove between 101 and 113 mph a total of 13 times in a two-month span, according to documents obtained by The Dispatch through a public-records request.

Women Supporting Women, your local breast cancer support organization has recently received a great number of donations of bras, prostheses, and wigs from several American Cancer Society offices across Maryland and the rest of the country. Due to the increase in inventory, which will be given free to survivors, Women Supporting Women has had to reorganize their Regional Office in Salisbury. Join us on Tuesday, June 25 at 4:00 for a ribbon cutting to present three redesigned rooms for wigs, educational materials, and bras and prostheses. An open house will follow until 6:00.

Women Supporting Women is a local, grass-roots non-profit organization dedicated to providing awareness, education and support to all those who are affected by breast cancer. With no national ties or funding, we rely completely on our community to help us provide free services to our neighbors, friends and families right here on Delmarva. To learn more about WSW, visit www.womensupportingwomen.org or www.facebook.com/womensupportingwomen/delmarva , or stop by our Salisbury office located at 1320 Belmont Avenue, next to the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.

The 'anonymous' search engine DuckDuckGo is getting a boost off the PRISM scandal that is putting big tech companies like Google and Apple to shame.

DuckDuckGo, a search engine that claims it gives its users complete anonymity, has seen a 33 percent increase in users since the NSA news broke over a week ago, said founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg on CNBC's Closing Bell Tuesday.

"We always knew people didn't want to be tracked, but what hadn't happened was reporting on the private alternatives and so it's no surprise that people are making a choice to switch to things that that will give them great results and also have real privacy," Weinberg said.

A new report from the ATF shows that Maryland is among the top five states with the greatest number of guns lost or stolen from federally licensed gun dealers last year.

More than 880 guns were lost in Maryland and dealers reported 98 were stolen in 2012.

The report comes after Maryland's General Assembly toughened the state's gun laws and as President Obama continues to push Congress for stronger laws at the federal level in the wake of the mass shootings in Newtown and Colorado.

The ATF says that Maryland comes in third in the nation with the most guns lost or stolen from federally licensed gun dealers in 2012. Pennsylvania came in first followed by Texas. New York and Georgia round out the top five states.More

“Power that becomes too concentrated, that is accustomed to operating in secret, is deadly to a free society. Individual judgment can be a dangerous thing. The great variety of people can rationalize almost any action in their private mind, whether it be a principled stand for justice, or a destructive and unjust act of violence. We have seen, over and over as groups or self-defining classes of people come to power, that they can tend to rationalize actions that in retrospect were clearly not in the public interest, but largely in their own, from making their tasks more effective to lining their pockets with funds and abusing power.

Transparency, debate, and freedom of speech are the necessary safeguards that our Constitution has ensured. This has been one of the greatest and most effective innovations in political theory. One thing I will say is that the vilification of the messenger, in this case Snowden, by the mainstream media in the States has been disappointing, and at times, almost surreal. But why does that surprise us? We have seen the same thing occurring in numerous whistle blower cases, including the slurs and marginalization against those who have stood up to expose corruption and fraud in the markets, even by otherwise intelligent and well-meaning people. That is a culture of conformity, the status quo, and the enabling of a power that will, in the end, serve only itself. I promised you that this would be a time of ‘revelations.’ And that process is not done, but continues.

My greatest concern is that given enough time and official messaging that people will come to accept almost anything, and come to thrive on the spectacles of misery. That is the Hunger Games.”

Here’s what we know about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban most abortions after 20 weeks: The Associated Press tells us that the “GOP-led House on Tuesday passed a far-reaching anti-abortion bill.” But don’t worry, Politico adds. It is “largely symbolic: The bill will be dead on arrival in the Senate.”

On June 17, 2013, the Ocean City Police Department proudly graduated four new officers from the Eastern Shore Criminal Justice Academy’s 70th police academy class.Officers were formally recognized as certified police officers of the Ocean City Police Department, after 24 weeks (942 hours) of intense training. The recruit class was comprised of various law enforcement agencies from all over Maryland’s Eastern Shore. These officers continued the long established tradition of OCPD officers by graduating from the police academy with top honors.Each of the four OCPD officers finished in the top four performance standings of the class as follows:

“We are thrilled to welcome these four officers to our department,” said Ocean City Police Acting Chief Greg Guiton. “Each of them exemplifies all that is good in law enforcement. We are very confident that they will serve the Ocean City community with honor, integrity and pride.”After their graduation from the police academy, the four new officers will enter into a nine week field training program. During this time they will hone the skills they have acquired in the police academy under the direct supervision of a veteran OCPD field training officer. They will be routinely evaluated and critiqued on their performance and judgment and will be exposed to the various shifts and divisions that make up the OCPD.

You're standing before a wall of white in the toilet paper aisle of your local retailer, thinking: How much difference can there really be between brands X,Y and Z? So you go with the cheapest, or the one you know best, only to be reminded later that, actually there's a big difference between good and bad TP. That's plain to see in Consumer Reports' toilet paper Ratings, where fifty points separate our first and last-place products. So before restocking your supply, be sure to check the results.

We test toilet paper on four key criteria, using a combination of machinery and sensory panelists. Strength is measured by an apparatus called an Instron, which pushes a steel ball through stacked sheets of paper. The same machine also evaluates tearing ease. All-important softness is determined by panelists, who gently caress each toilet paper. Disintegration, indicating how well paper will move through your home's plumbing, involves a water-filled beaker, a 20-inch stirring rod, and a vibrating plate.

I find it a bit concerning when the printed reports about the wells being contaminated in "Morris Mill" and now "Doe Run"...are only reported by the Daily Slim. I admit I'm no expert on this subject...but it would seem to me that the chemical that is the result of these high readings and hazards, must be very regulated and some what easy to track down. The volume required to potentially do what they says has happened....must be very large. Tracking such a chemical would seem to be police work 101.....and then a process of elimination to determine the gulity party. Now you know me...and I would never doubt the word of local, state, or national politicians....but the price tag associated with the extenison of Fruitland's water/sewer....would sure be a helpful shoot in that city's physical woes. Now stated at 8.5 million in this am's article...and I'm sure it would be 1.5 times that in the end....plus the tax revenue.

EPA and local politicians wouldn't go this far to jam this down our throats would they? First..is it a real situation...and second if it is real...find who did it and make them pay.

So which is it? Does that sushi or canned tuna pose a minuscule risk, just a little one, or is it safe? The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a report online May 30, 2013 that garnered these vastly disparate headlines. The NAS team studied measurements of cesium-137 and cesium-134 in Bluefin tuna caught off the California coast. The cesium was dumped or leaked as liquids into and deposited as gaseous fallout on the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima’s three catastrophic reactor meltdowns. The poisoned tuna swam 5,000 miles to our West Coast.

There’s been a lot of discussion about how Edward Snowden should be prosecuted. But there’s another question: What should happen to journalists who published the information Snowden leaked, among themGuardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras?

Last month, The Washington Post reported that the government had searched Fox News reporter James Rosen’s personal emails and obtained his phone records, as well as the records of other Fox employees, while investigating a leak. In a 2010affidavit requesting permission to do so, the FBI claimed Rosen was “at the very least” an “aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” with a government advisor, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim. Later that year, Kim was indicted under the Espionage Act for telling Rosen that the intelligence community thought North Korea would respond to U.N. sanctions with more nuclear tests — information Rosen used in an article.

UPDATE:Thanks again to sby news for another dog reuniting with his family! Thank you to the woman on Jackson road that saw the post on your blog!This is Dobby. He has been missing from the Fruitland area by Crown Sports Center since 7 am. Please call with any information 410-251-5789